Dupaningan Agta: Grammar, vocabulary, and texts

Abstract

Dupaningan Agta is an Austronesian language of the Philippine subgroup which is spoken in northeastern Luzon, Philippines by approximately 1,400 semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers belonging to the Negrito ethnic minority. The language is endangered, as it is beginning to lose child speakers. This dissertation introduces the language situation and discusses phonology (synchronic and historical) and morphosyntax (word order, word classes, the verb complex, aspect, case marking, nominalization, question formation, relative clauses and other essential aspects of Dupaningan grammar). Dupaningan Agta has a relatively simple phonological system, with fifteen consonants and five vowels. Of note, *a has been fronted to /i/ or /e/ after the voiced stops /b d g/. Morphosyntactically, the language has a typical Philippine-type "symmetrical voice" or "focus" system. The voice system of Dupaningan Agta is explored, with special reference to an interesting "double-object" construction with two syntactic subjects. Finally, this dissertation includes a substantial vocabulary and selection of texts. The audio versions of these texts are available as .wav files associated with this dissertation.